The New Power Base Selling: Master The Politics, Create Unexpected Value and Higher Margins, and Outsmart the Competition

Creating Demand Significance

Creating demand is attractive to customers because it represents the essence of customer value: accelerating their business in a way they did not anticipate, as we have discussed earlier. It disproportionately accelerates quota achievement for sellers because it is often single-sourced business. Therefore, if it goes to bid, the request for proposal (RFP) is essentially wired to support the supplier who has created the opportunity, which results in:

• High win rates that can be forecasted early and accurately but that may lead to . . .
• . . . a longer-than-usual sales cycle the first time around with a customer. The second time you create demand with a specific customer you will likely see a relatively short sales cycle. All of this adds up to . . .
• . . . high-margin business, as the customer’s willingness to pay for Unexpected Value is maximized.

Now, let’s contrast this to servicing demand. In that scenario, a seller wins a deal because demand exists for his or her solution; sometimes it is already present, and sometimes sellers create it. Occasionally, it’s a combination of both. So, what contributes to this demand? Sometimes it’s circumstantial, such as selling in a booming industry or when you’re representing a category killer product that everybody wants. You may be aligned with a Fox when servicing these identified deals and not even know it. You’ve likely witnessed a sales situation in which a powerful person provides you with direction and guidance. ...